


you will not find your enemies here

by decadencethief



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 06:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadencethief/pseuds/decadencethief
Summary: You’ve met many creatures during this long night that have filled you with fear, dread, disgust… Lady Maria isn’t one of them.





	you will not find your enemies here

“A corpse… should be left well alone.”

She doesn’t look like a corpse, now that you see her from up close. Her grip on your wrist is tight, but not painful; you can make out her slender fingers beneath the leather glove that she wears. Her eyes dig into yours from under her hat, the colour of the moon peering through clouds, but alert, _alive,_ and all you can do is hold her gaze. Even your breath doesn’t dare leave your lips, lest it disturb the still air.

She lets go of your wrist abruptly, and you stagger back. Your boots kick up puffs of dust off the wooden floor.

Lady Maria stands up. Her voice is quiet, and yet it fills the room, rings off of the decrepit walls. “Liberate you, from your wild curiosity.”

You step back before you’ve made the conscious decision to. You’ve met many creatures during this long night that have filled you with fear, dread, disgust… Lady Maria isn’t one of them. Not to say that you don’t fear her, or the sheathed blade hanging off of her belt, but you _respect_ her, too.

You have no desire to fight her.

She echoes your thoughts. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this.”  She unsheathes her weapon. There’s a metallic _clink_ as she breaks it into two parts, a sword and a dagger with a serrated edge.

You grip your own daggers. The solid handles ground you and keep you in the moment.

There’s nothing bestial about Lady Maria as she advances towards you. She places one foot in front of the other with the softest whisper of leather against wood, slowly and patiently. Her precise, measured motions reminds you of someone else you met on this endless night, a Queen without a people, who welcomed you as her own.

Lady Maria continues her approach.

You only have so much room to back off, but you do, and your footfalls are as loud as gunshots. It’s unlike you not to dash into battle with your weapons in front of you, disguising your terror as aggression. You’re not the religious sort, but there’s something akin to a prayer in the ring of blade against blade, something sacrificial in the blood that seeps from your cuts. It feels out of place, here.

In a flurry of dust, Lady Maria launches herself at you.

She’s faster than you anticipate, and only your primal reflexes allow you to dodge forward and out of the path of her blade. You roll over your shoulder and spring to your feet, whipping around to face her again. Without missing a beat, she whirls around for another attack. Her dagger slashes the air in  a wide arc and you dive underneath it just in time.

She tries to hit you three, four times, and you manage to escape her steel every time. It feels like a dance, one whose steps you don’t know, set to music that only the two of you hear.

Eventually, you follow up a sideways lunge with a stab upwards, and your dagger connects with Lady Maria’s arm. Her grunt is one of surprise rather than pain, but she jumps away from you nonetheless.

You’re caught in the way her blood drips down the grooves in your blade and to the floor, to seep into the layer of dust.

“You show more skill than the hunters before you,” she says from the other side of the room, “but you will come no closer to fulfilling your purpose.”

You don’t have one, you want to say. She uses the lapse in your attention to narrow the distance again. A burning across the chest tells you you were too slow to escape.

For a moment, the two of you are in each other’s spaces. She stares at you, and you fancy reading pity in her expression. Then, she looks away. “Some secrets should never see the light of day.”

Time blurs afterwards, the rhythmic clash of your weapons your only metronome. Each of you gets her fair share of bruises and lacerations, but neither takes advantage of the gaps of the other’s defenses.

Then, eventually, the scales tip in your favour.

Her attack takes a moment too long, which is enough for a well-timed bullet to strike into her chest. Her armour absorbs most of the impact, but she staggers back, spreading her arms to keep herself from falling to the floor. It leaves her exposed, and you’re just close enough to take advantage.

Your eyes meet again.

Hers seem warmer now, moonlit and opalescent, and there’s the phantom of a smile in the corner of your mouth as she seems to wait for her strike.

It never comes.

Instead, you step backwards and fall to your knees.

You lift your left hand up to the ceiling and the right one horizontally to your side, in the bow you honoured Queen Annalise with. You utter no complicated greeting now; all that you manage to say is: “I refuse to do this.”

Lady Maria doesn’t move.

Then, she collects herself and straightens up again, dusting herself off. Then, she approaches you.

Part of you wants to close her eyes and wait for the end, but you find yourself unable to.

When she reaches you, Lady Maria lifts up her dagger. You brace yourself, but the cold blade still catches you by surprise as she presses it under your chin. A shiver runs down your spine.

“You came all the way here to challenge me, killing a great many of the patients under my care in the process. Why stop now?”

You don’t have a good response, so you go with: “This has never been my fight.”

Her expression dims. “It has not. And yet you chose to fight it until this moment.”

You look away.

The silence seems to stretch forever.

Dust particles dance in the air, illuminated by the light filtering through the clock face. Beyond your and Maria’s shaky breaths, you hear no sound.

Then, she sighs.

The blade lifts from your skin.

“Go,” she says.

“Excuse me?” You look at her, unable to comprehend the simple command.

“Leave. Go back the way you came and find a way to escape this nightmare. It’s not yours to suffer in.”

“Come with me,” you mumble before you can catch yourself.

Lady Maria laughs, quietly. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I cannot.”

“There has to be a way,” you insist, but she’s shaking her head. The finality of it keeps you from objecting further.

“Be on your way, good hunter. You shouldn’t linger in these dusty memories.”

Your eyes begin to sting. You shut them and breathe in, trying to get a hold of yourself.

The next thing you feel is Maria’s glove pressing to your cheek. The leather is coarse against your skin and the scent of fresh blood washes over you, but the way she cups your face is still tender. Comforting. She traces your cheekbone with her thumb. You lean into the touch, letting yourself imagine what it would feel like if the circumstances were different.

Maria lets her hand fall.

When you finally muster the strength to open your eyes, she’s walking back to the chair you found her in. Her weapon is sheathed again.

She doesn’t turn to look at you.

You allow yourself one more second of peace.

Then, you pull yourself up to your feet and head for the door.


End file.
